Here We Go!

Photo by David Nelson

It was time to rock. Our first number is almost always “Jungle Gym Jamming,” and I gave Miguel the tempo by speaking the phrase “Jungle Gym Jamming” a few times at the pace I wanted. He counted us in and we were into the show. At the song’s opening I was making eye contact with the audience, which was nicely situated on blankets and lawn chairs in the street. I was trying to get a feel for ways to delight this collection of families, pre-schoolers, tweens and teens. Interacting with Judy and Casey on stage helped to maintain audience interest, as well as adding some physical movements that match the lyrics. In “Jungle Gym Jamming,” I encourage kids to “stomp to the beat,” “jump up and down,” “play some air guitar” and “spin in circles.” So I physicalized these words to the best of my ability while singing and playing guitar.

When I laid into the solo, Judy came to center stage to interact with me; I think that helps to intrigue an audience. And as with many good punk songs, I lead us out with several rhythmic chants of “HEY! HEY!” I’m used to hearing polite clapping between songs, but hearing young voices fully cheering was really something special! As I write this blog, I’m trying to remember the exact sound of all those kids going “WOOOOOO!” and take that moment with me.

When I Say Marco, You Say Polo!

Photo by David Nelson

The moment when I truly knew we had the audience with us was in “Stay in the Pool,” which we performed second, when I got a call-and-response going: “When I say Marco, you say Polo! Marco! ____________! Marco! _____________!” – the shouts of “Polo!” back from the crowd were spirited and we kept that going for 4 times through (it’s only one time through on the record). This was our first-ever public, live performance of the full band arrangement of this song, and it went over as well as I had hoped. As soon as it ended, we segued right into “All Star,” and it was really gratifying to see all those kids and some adults mouthing the lyrics along with me.

My new guitar strings were slipping a little out of tune and I took a moment out to tune up. To make sure I didn’t lose the audience, I told the crowd what I was doing and I added a line I had picked up from another performer: “I tune because I care.” Now confidently in-tune, we launched into “Jackals on the Prowl,” which tends to be a crowd favorite in Montclair because the song’s namesake, the NJ Jackals play at the Montclair State University campus. This was our first public performance of this homegrown sports anthem with Casey in the band.

Our song “Window of the Train” was performed with dynamics – volumes rising and falling to give the impression of a train trip beginning, chugging along, and then coming to rest. I always get a kick out of looking over at Peanut during that song when I sing about “Grandma & Grandpa waving at me,” especially when my parents are with her, and I get to see them waving at each other.

Going Acoustic

Photo by David Nelson

The time was flying by and we reached the acoustic portion of our set. I quickly switched guitars and kicked us off into “Glass Half Full,” a song that deals with adult issues of sustaining optimism when things go wrong or our mood is off, but I feel it relates to everyone. Casey improvised a great call-and-response part in the verses and the band gave the song a great feel.

One of our great moments of connecting with the audience came as I introduced “The Pick Song.” I held up my pick and said “Don’t put the pick in your…” – then I heard all kinds of responses from the audience at once. The response that came out the clearest was “EYE!” – and with that I started strumming the intro and the band joined in. This song works like a good Pixar movie – it’s very kid-friendly and relevant to what we need to teach pre-schoolers when I let them strum my guitar – a friendly reminder not to put the pick in their mouths or drop it down the guitar’s sound hole. It works on the adult level too with clever setups to the variation of lyrics in the choruses that gets adults and teens laughing in anticipation of the punch line.

Photo by David Nelson

With time remaining for only one more song, but six more on the setlist to choose from, my inspiration to choose the last song came right from the sky. That beautiful waxing gibbous moon I could see rising over Manny’s Diner prompted me to play “Peek-a-boo Moon” as our closing number.

A Band on the Rise

It was clear all throughout the stage that as a band we continued to raise our game from one gig to the next, as we have since the beginning. This was only Casey’s second gig as a member of the group, and our previous full-band show was almost 2 months before this one. As she loosened up and had fun onstage, her vocals sounded freer and her harmonies blended with my melodies more naturally. She and Judy both continue to interact more with me onstage and create more moments. Miguel covered Ross’ parts ably and confidently and our band continues to improve as we work with both drummers. We’re heading into a busier time in our schedule with a growing confidence that we’re prepared for the growing opportunities ahead of us, one level at a time.

Packing Up and a Cool New Invitation

We quickly moved our gear off the street. I paused briefly to give Peanut a great big hug and got right back to moving equipment off the street so that the movie could begin.

On the sidewalk we started to pack up. During the packing, I was happy to be approached in conversation by Joann Smalls, a key player in the Montclair music scene. She invited us to perform at an outdoor festival for kids in September, which we’re now in the process of working out.

I could feel the benefit of having fulfilled Lisa’s request for live entertainment that night, and then having worked out the unique problems with the scheduling and physical logistics. Taking those obstacles in stride and then giving a heartfelt performance from everyone in the group led us to a good place and helped build constructive relationships with people who love the arts in our town like we do.

What requests have you come through on that ended up benefitting you? What challenges have you overcome happily, with gusto? What moments in doing your favorite things do you try to hold onto and remember? Do foresee events in your future where you can be more mindful of opportunities to soak up a little extra happiness?

Lately I’ve been having increasingly positive interactions with professionals who are in a position to help me grow my audience and my earning potential from my music. It wasn’t luck and it wasn’t handed to me. I started completely from scratch and patiently, steadily went about the business of developing relationships.

If you’re an artist and you share your art publicly, sooner or later you will come across people who have clout in your industry, people who are in a position to help your career along. The most common complaint I hear among those who work in the industry as booking agents, radio hosts, reviewers and journalists is that they are objectified by those who could use a boost. Think for a moment about how you would feel if you were treated only as a career opportunity, not as a person.

Now, let’s return to our interactions with that industry professional.

Be a good listener. Make a habit of really reading a person’s social media posts and responding kindly and in a way that’s relevant to the post. If you meet face-to-face, really, actively listen instead of rehearsing your responses. Get to know the needs of the person you think can help you. What that person probably doesn’t need is pressure from you to put their good name behind an unproven artist. Your demo track doesn’t prove what an industry professional needs proven.

Be helpful. What you can prove is how willing you are to make an event successful by jumping in and helping with an event even if it’s not your event or not the glamorous event you had in mind. You can help by recommending artists that are further along than yourself.

Get over yourself. How awesome your new song may or may not be is in the eye of the beholder. Nobody owes you an opportunity because you believe you made an amazing recording. Take a few deep breaths and let them go. If you can think for a moment like someone who hasn’t heard you and has little to distinguish whether she click your link or the 20 others on her inbox, you can think of a more relevant way to establish a human connection.

Ask for a critique. Instead of trying to sell an industry professional on how awesome your creation is and how ready it is for the opportunities you’re trying to get, you might ask for a critique of a new song before professionally recording it. It depends on where you are in the relationship with this particular person. When you incorporate at least those suggestions that are genuinely in alignment with you as an artist, you can really demonstrate that you’re listening to that person in order to fulfill a need for the kinds of creations they can use. When an industry professional has invested time in your improving your craft and gets a satisfying result, the relationship grows.

Know where you are; don’t skip steps. The “American Idol” syndrome has a huge swath of the public convinced that you can be singing in the shower one day, auditioning the next day, and then it’s off to Hollywood! This may partially explain your instinct to ask a concert promoter you just found on Facebook if your garage band can open for the Foo Fighters next month when they come to town. If you’re a new band, you need a following that goes beyond family and friends. Concentrate on playing venues appropriately sized for your audience. Do not let pay or lack thereof stop you from performing. You need to keep improving your craft in front of an audience as you grow your audience. You need new names for your e-mail list. If you keep growing your following, you’ll be able to choose the higher paying venue over the lower paying venue when they both want you on the same day. Know which venues attract people with tastes that would match your creations. Strive to work each level of your career to its full potential before demanding to be carried to the next level. While you’re at it, enjoy the level you’re on. Embrace it with gusto. Be patient. If it takes years for the timing to be right to partner with an industry professional you’ve met, it’s well worth the time, effort and patience, as long as you’re actively working each level and not waiting to be discovered. This means practicing, playing writing, recording and growing your fan base by playing whatever appropriate venues you can and forming relationships with potential fans.

Be consistently positive and friendly. You can’t always control your mood, but you can sure control what you post publicly about your mood and the people involved in it. Bashing your competition or artists on a higher level than you advertises your insecurity about your own career. Even worse is bad-mouthing an industry professional who didn’t give you what you wanted. If you do that online, you will create a permanent record of your unprofessionalism and a neon advertisement as to why industry professionals should not work with you. Keep your interactions positive. Remember things that this industry professional shares, either publicly that you’ve seen, or in a face-to-face moment with you. If a concert promoter posts pictures with his puppy Roscoe, ask him one day “How’s Roscoe?”

Look for conversational hooks. Especially on Twitter, if an industry professional posts “Good morning, how is everyone today?”, he/she is hoping for a reply. Grab on that hook and engage this person in a little conversation.

By making these seven changes to your interactions with industry leaders you come across, and with potential fans, you will probably not get immediate financial reward, but you will feel a difference first in the quality of your interactions and the communication you get coming back to you. Industry professionals may not seek you out right away, but they’ll be much more welcome to your communication if you engage their humanity and not your idea of how they can instantly catapult you to superstardom.

Last Friday night’s performance at the Montclair Film Festival’s Summer Screening was all about creating moments – and, like all do-it-yourself performance propositions, it was also about problem solving, determination, and connecting with the joy of what we’re doing. These themes played off each other in the weeks running up to the show and straight through the performance and packing up afterwards.

A Cool Invitation

I was honored that Lisa from the Montclair Film Festival asked me to perform at one of this year’s outdoor summer screenings, as a follow-up to last year’s solo acoustic performance of mostly 50s rock before a screening of Grease. This time, the movie was Men in Black and the band was to perform from 8:00 until about 8:45, with the movie set to start about 9:00 when it got dark enough outside. The location would be Montclair’s bustling Church Street with its sidewalk cafes, boutiques, and art galleries. The one-way street would be closed to car traffic and a giant screen would be placed in the roadway.

The opportunities to create wonderful moments were apparent from the early stages of communicating with Lisa to make the show happen. Then, the challenges began to surface: Can the whole band make it? What if I play as a solo or duo? We’re a kids’ band whose song themes are inspired by my toddler. How can we adapt our show to create appealing moments for tweens (upper-elementary and middle-schoolers) who will more likely be at a sci-fi comedy thriller like Men in Black, which begins past the bedtime of our usual audience? Do we have all the necessary equipment to pull off this show ourselves?

Preparing for New Situations

Scheduling problems came to light: Everyone could make it to the gig except our drummer Ross. So I reached out to Montclair drummers Miguel Rodriguez, a rock drummer who is in the Parents Who Rock organization with me, and Bruce Tyler, a jazz/blues drummer who seems to be at every musical event in and around town. Bruce couldn’t make it; Miguel had a potential conflict that might require some fancy footwork on everyone’s part, including the Film Festival organizers. He was set to run sound for a performance elsewhere in Montclair that night.

Fortunately, Miguel was able to reschedule his other commitment and dedicate the whole night to sitting in with us. Now we had a new dilemma: He could only rehearse with us once: the week of the gig, on a night no one else could make. So, I set up a one-on-one rehearsal with Miguel. He was a quick study and we ran through every song once, tightening up some spots where the music changes and working out the song endings. Peanut listened in to our session on the basement stairs with Amy, staying up pretty late. When she decided it was time for bed, I took a 5-minute break to take her upstairs, give her one last change and tuck her in. Amy read Peanut a book while I went back down to complete our rehearsal. I was feeling a lot more confident about how Friday would work out.

I got in one more rehearsal with Ross, Casey and Judy on Thursday and we were mostly able to concentrate on running through the setlist, which I had figured would be about 14 songs for a 45-minute set. It was a good opportunity to go back over some songs we hadn’t rehearsed together in a while. We also worked out some songs from my pre-Jungle Gym Jam repertoire, like Jackals on the Prowl and Glass Half Full. At the end of rehearsal, I spoke with the band about the importance of creating moments on stage – with eye contact and interaction among us onstage. This was as ready as we were going to be for Friday without everyone ever being in the same rehearsal at the same time. I prepared with everyone as best I could and took the rest of the outcome on faith.

Another problem to solve and an opportunity to create moments came up. We knew we’d be performing out in the street at dusk with dim street lighting that would render us nearly invisible to an audience. I researched lighting options that could be used in a special situation like this, and came up with 150-watt clip-on work lights from Home Depot, along with compact fluorescent bulbs that would not burn as hot as incandescents. I would clip these lamps to the speaker poles to light the band. On the night of the gig, those lights helped us make the most of each onstage moment to delight the audience.

Getting There is Half the Battle

Friday, as we drove to the venue, we saw that Church Street was physically blocked off with nobody attending to the street’s entrance. With three cars full of musical equipment, this put us in an awkward position with how best to unload our equipment and bring it to the stage. I ended up making two trips from the 3rd floor of the parking garage (taking the elevator) to the spot on Church Street where we’d be playing, first carrying our PA system, and then on a return trip, carrying my guitar amp.

Judy was certain that there must be a way to get her car closer to the stage. Just as we were discussing it, Lisa greeted us and I asked her if we could move the barricades to get the band loaded in. Lisa agreed and we had some great help from a Montclair police officer in getting Judy’s car parked near the stage. We unloaded the rest of the equipment and I threw my entire concentration into setting up our gear as quickly as possible. We were getting close to show time and my bandmates asked where Miguel was. I said I couldn’t worry about trying to track him down; he had earlier posted an announcement about the gig on Facebook so I was certain he didn’t forget. I wasn’t willing to take my eye off the ball in terms of setting us up for the show. As I was connecting the cables and getting ready to start up the PA, Miguel arrived with all his drums neatly stacked on a hand cart. He did a quick setup and was ready to go as soon as our microphones and guitars were on and tested.

I decided to give my guitar wireless rig a second chance, this time using it for the electric guitar. After all, I wouldn’t be moving around as large of a space this time. Even in a confined space, the guitar wireless system was dropping out for a moment here and there, depending on where I moved. This experience confirmed my need to upgrade to a better wireless system, which I just did today. I enjoy the freedom of being untethered from a cable, which frees me up to give kids my very best stage presence.

I hooked up the lights, which, judging from the photos, gave us more the look and feel of a real show on a summer evening. I laid out my setlist (after a little scrambling to remember where I put it). We were ready to rock!

To be continued…

When you’ve prepared a special event – a party, ceremony, corporate event or concert, what problems have you had to solve? How did you do it? Did you keep your composure? How much could you work out in advance? How much did you have to take on faith? How did your preparation lead to creating unforgettable moments?

Last Saturday night was a night of firsts: my first solo performance representing the Jungle Gym Jam, the Broad Street IHOP’s first engagement of a musician for its long-running Family Fun Night series, and my first time ever performing using a wireless microphone or guitar transmitter (I used both).

For years I had seen the flyers up in the IHOP advertising a family fun night with a balloon artist or face painter and had thought, “hmmm, they should have a musician. I’ll bet I could do that…” but left the thought there. Of course, I didn’t identify myself as a kindie artist at that time. In recent weeks I rekindled the thought since I consider IHOP to be a family-friendly tradition and a great place to introduce parents and kids to our songs live, in-person and with ample opportunities to interact in between sets.

After a few enthusiastic phone calls and e-mails with the brothers who own the local franchise, we made a go of it. Then began the considerations: Do I bring a speaker system? I knew that this was a restaurant, not a nightclub, so volume needed to be kept low enough for patrons to be able to enjoy dinnertime conversation. I also knew it was a big restaurant divided into two rooms that have little to no line of sight between them. The first consideration led me to think about bringing no amplification at all. The second consideration raised the concern that every time I visit one room in the restaurant, the other room would get no trace of my performance, which could have a disorienting effect for the audience, especially in the middle of a song. But even if I brought a conventional PA system with a mic on a stand, that would raise the problem: where do you set up so everyone who wants to see you perform can do so, especially kids who would have their back to you in a booth? My answer was to get a wireless headset mic and a wireless guitar transmitter, so I could move freely around the space.

For the show, I wore my new green custom Converse sneakers for the first time and picked up a cool accessory at Party City – a red bracelet that lights up when you move your wrist. Perfect for strumming, I thought!

Setup went smoothly and Viola, the restaurant’s manager, greeted me very warmly, offering me coffee or anything I might want. I tested the wireless equipment in the larger space, sound checking with the Beatles song “Eight Days a Week.” The gear seemed to work fine with one exception: my range of how far I could walk with the guitar transmitter was limited. If I walked to the back corner tables, the signal would cut out and then come back as I got closer to the receiver. The microphone seemed to work from absolutely everywhere.

Just before showtime at 6:00, there were a few other families with kids in the venues, along with some all-adult parties. Then, my wife Amy, my mother Linda and 2-year-old Peanut arrived and got a table. I gave out some maracas and tambourines I brought for audience participation. Soon, I launched into “I’m a Believer” to start the set. The freedom of being able to move around among the audience was exhilarating! I was spinning, dancing, making eye contact with families wherever their tables were, in both rooms of the divided restaurant.

More families arrived during the course of the first set and going into the second set. One family had a middle-school aged boy and his younger sister. My first thought was to work in some songs that would appeal to the kids in the older range of our audience. When I launched into an Elvis medley, I was pleased to hear a maraca played with expert timing and a great flourish on the song ending. I asked our young teen if he was a drummer, and he said yes. It’s always great to jam with young student musicians and feed off their energy!

One couple with a young school-aged son and a baby daughter arrived. The mom told me between sets that they had seen our calendar entry in Baristanet and that they liked both IHOP and family music so this Family Fun Night was a natural fit for them. During that break I took Peanut around to all the tables that had kids and mingled a bit. Peanut was thrilled with this and kept telling my mom, “People! People!”

A great moment occurred during the second set when one mother and her three kids were getting ready to leave. While they were waiting to pay the check, her kids were dancing to my tunes. My mom took Peanut for a walk around the restaurant and my little one joined right in with her new friends’ dance moves. I love when my music is an occasion for the beginning of new friendships!

At the close of the set, I sat down to have my dinner with my family and reflect on the wonderful moments of the show. The next day I stopped back in at the IHOP to follow-up with one of the franchise owners and plan our next steps. I’ve been invited back to perform on Saturday, August 24. I gladly accepted and we will make a few adjustments. The challenge is to lower the volume of the PA system where it was set up by the front counter and still be audible at the back tables of the restaurant. I believe the answer will be the addition of more speakers in the far corners of the restaurant, with each one at a significantly lower volume. The challenge is to honor the wishes of people coming to their favorite restaurant to eat and enjoy their conversations while putting on a dynamic and engaging show that encourages kids to make new friends and enjoy a memorable night out with the family.